A Beautiful Challenge
by segsyreid
Summary: Spencer Reid had come to terms that this is his life now, and this is what he grew up to be; at least until his best friend from his childhood shows up with news that will flip his whole world around and change everything. How will the young FBI agent handle such a new lifestyle? Full summary inside. Reid/OC.
1. Chapter 1

**Please read the long authors note! **

**Hi, my name is Molly-Elizabeth, but I often go by Lizzie or Mols. Please read more about me if you'd like on my profile, but I thought I should give you a full summary of the story you are hopefully about to read!:**

_**Margret Giroux is a young girl, settled happily in her life in Canada, yet happens to have a best friend in the FBI. When one of the meetings wit her best friend takes a flip for the unexpected, she is left to deal with the perminent consiquences.  
Meanwhile, Spencer Reid is a hard worker. He never really socializes with anyone outside of his team, except for a girl that he has known since he was 12 years old, who often comes to visit him. One day she shows up at his work with news that will change his life forever, and coping with that can't be easy, can it?  
Come along for the struggles, the joys, the ups, and the downs faced by this team and the two friends.**_

_**Warning: This story has MINOR sexual content/references, but will be lead into the side-effects of an eating disorder of some sort. Not too informative or detailed, nor is it spread out very long in the story, but if you feel uncomfortable please let me know.**_

**Okay! Well I hope you at lease give the first chapter a try. Thanks!**

There was a long elevator ride up to the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit. I couldn't decide whether time was dragging by, or the elevator was taking an extremely long amount of time to accomplish the task of getting me up to the floor I was needed in. Finally, there was a small ding and I walked out and over to the receptionist, stating my case. All was pretty empty, considering the time of day it was. The sun was setting, but I knew he would still be there. I pulled the temporarily unlocked glass door open, and I saw three people sitting around, and one of them, a dark haired brunette, glanced up. "Hi, may we help you?" the two male's followed suit, and the man who I was looking for stood up.

"Molly?" he asked in shock, walking over to me. "What are you doing here?" he gave me a tight, awkward hug before pulling away and sitting on a desk.

"I just came to see you!" I told him. "Visit, I guess. I am only here until tomorrow so I'm sorry this couldn't wait. I heard you all just got back from a case somewhere. I was worried you would be too busy." we heard footsteps behind us, and turned to see a tall, sharply dressed man standing there looking at us.

"Reid..." he warned, and he turned fully around.

"Hotch!" he said in a panic. "Uhm, Margret, this is Aaron Hotchner. Hotch, this is my close friend Margret Giroux. We met when we were in camp when we were 11." I extended my hand to the tall man, whose face unstiffened and he shook back. "She's just here for a visit."

"Nice to meet you." he insisted.

"Pleasure's all mine." the kind man stood back.

"Well everyone you should head home. It's been a long trip and I can imagine how tired you must be." Everyone nodded, and Spencer invited me out to a diner he knew would be open still. We drove there in silence and parked, walking and getting seated.

His eyes seemed to be plastered on me. His hair hadn't grown too much since a month ago when I saw him last, but it seemed to be that he was actually filling out. His eyes weren't uncomfortable to me in the slightest. "You know what I am, Molly?" his voice finally broke the not-so-awkward silence, and I looked up, nodding. "Do you know what I do?" I nodded again. "I read people, I can tell what you are thinking just by the way you behave."

I rolled my eyes lightly and bared a rare smile. "And?"

"You have something to tell me." I guess it didn't take me as by surprise. I just placed my spoon down and crossed my arms over my chest. "It's something big, life altering, maybe not just your life, but mine too. See, you can tell the complexity of something by how nervous they are, and like you... how hard they try to hide it." He was good, there is not a doubt in the world that he wasn't one of the best. Brushing my hair out of my face, I leaned towards him. "You can tell me, you know? I think we've known enough long enough that we can trus-"

"I'm pregnant." it was so abrupt and so random in his eyes, random enough to silence him. The stunned look on his face gave me no way to possibly understand his thoughts. "And it's yours." I had to add that one in there, just for insurance, but since he still didn't speak, I continued. "I don't expect anything from you. At first I wasn't even going to tell you, maybe just go through the pregnancy and do the whole adoption thing, but then I thought how I would feel if I had a baby in the world and didn't even know... then I realized that would be like me if I gave it up for adoption. So I am keeping it..." I believe this is the first time I have ever seen Dr. Spencer Reid speechless.

We sat in silence in the little diner, only a few other people dropping in and out on their way from work. His gaze fell from my face and onto his coffee, before a single word was muttered. "How?"

"I guess it broke?" I guessed, and he just nodded. "Wait, it did?"

"I thought I broke it... right up until now." I rested my hands on the table. "Now I know it broke." I felt the pit of my stomach rise, and suddenly the sweet green tea tasted like nothing of interest to me. "What should we do now?"

"We?" I asked, and he nodded. I shook my head. "Spencer you are gone for weeks at a time. You live in a one bedroom apartment and have no experience with children, well... other than being a godfather to your coworker's child. Correct me if I'm wrong but we are in no position to raise a child."

"And you are?" his voice became quieter, yet had a harsher tone that I haven't heard within our light conversations for years. "Alone?"

"I'm not alone. I have my family and my friends. I work as a teacher to elementary school kids and have a three bedroom apartment. I think I can manage." I said honestly. "You are too passionate about the life you created for yourself to do anything about it. I am not by any means saying that it is a bad thing, but I didn't come here asking for help or sympathy or even understanding. I am here for you to gain knowledge and act upon it on your own will." we weren't at the diner for very long, but I felt myself standing up and getting out a five dollar bill for my coffee and a tip.

"And that's it?" he asked form his still sitting position.

"I came here for what I need to do. I am heading back home first thing in the morning. I'm glad you know now, though." he nodded lightly, and kept his dark, sad eyes on the coffee in front of him. "Goodbye." he waved sadly, and blew me a kiss before I left him sitting alone at the diner.

**This is just the introduction to what I have planned. I have at least 7 1/2 chapters written and I do not plan on stopping. Let me know if you like it! I think I forgot to mention this but it is my first Criminal Minds fanfiction, and even though this account is new I am very familiar with the website.**

**Did you like it? Please let me know! 3**

**Thanks,**

**m.E.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Hey everyone, thanks for the great responses! Enjoy the next chapter :)**

Chapter 2

Every time I close my eyes I am back at the diner. Her scared green eyes and long curly hair stand out as her statement about our child is running through my ears as if the chimes were on repeat. Two weeks later, this statement leaves me, Spencer Reid, lost for any words at all. One day I am happily working with the FBI with no personal life at all, and the next I am debating what to do about the fact that my friend and my child are a thousand miles away and I am lost to a desire to do something, anything really at this point.

It takes until 4am in the cold hotel room until my brain gives up on sleep, and I take a shower and get ready for the upcoming day by reading the files to the case. My track of time must have been lost because there was a pounding on my door, and my partner Agent Morgan was yelling my name for me to come out.

I slip my shoes over my habitual mis-matched socks and follow him down to breakfast and a coffee. "Is something going on, kid?" I glance up to see Derek's eyes glancing on mine, I do not reply. "You seem a bit off your rocker lately. Anything been going on?" I shook my head.

"It's been hard for me to sleep." I concluded, before taking a bite of my cinnamon bun.

"Headaches?"

"Nope. Just a lot on the mind. It comes with the job I assume." he nodded, and went back to his breakfast as I went back to mine.

Throughout the day, people much have noticed my offness. I was trying to be discreet about it, and clearly failing miserably. The end of a day with no leads could not come sooner as I was back to where my day began, awake in the cold hotel room. I knew that sooner or later I would have to sleep. My job relied on my being focused and alert, and with no sleep, both seemed accomplishable. It was then that I knew it was time to tell someone.

I slipped my shoes back on and headed down the hallway, knocking gently on the door five or six down from mine until footsteps were heard and the familiar blonde came to the door. "Spencer?"

"Hi JJ. May I come in?" she looked at the time on her phone before shrugging and stepping aside. I slipped my boot off and went to go sit on the chair, the same as mine in my room.

"Okay, what's going on?" she asked, breaking the short silence. "Let me be the first to tell you that you are not yourself at all. I mean you seem tired and confused and off track, something has been eating your mind and you should tell me." I inhaled a big breath before replying to her truthful words.

"I think I made a mistake." he said simply. "But on the other hand I think it's really right." she looked confused, as if my one head suddenly turned into three. "Did you ever get to see Molly?"

"Who?"

"Uhm, Margret?"

"Oh yah, I saw her when she came and met you at the office. She seemed nice!" I nodded. "Well what about her?"

"Margret and I have been close friends since I was sent off to some sort of came when I was 11 and she was nine. I'm the only one who calls her Molly, but pretty much we are best friends. She came into town a few months ago and we met up, and after a few glasses of wine we started telling stories, and somehow the fact that I was still a virgin 2 days before my 30th birthday came up, and she said that we couldn't let that happen, so..." JJ nodded, wrapping her feet up and tucking them underneath her. "When she came two weeks ago, we went to a diner and she told me that... she got pregnant. And it's mine. And we're keeping it." the look on JJ's face said she was playing through the whole conversation over and over, and it made me feel a bit awkward. He mouth opened, and closed again as she went back to thinking.

"So you and... Margret... had sex because she found out you're a virgin?" she asked slowly.

"Well that's just how the topic came up! I suppose I worded that badly but we continued talking about it and some feelings were admitted and then I kissed her. It wasn't our first kiss but something was so different about it." I thought. "I never thought it would lead to this situation."

"How do you feel about this?"

"Uhm... It's weird but I am actually kind of excited to tell you the truth. I'm an awkward 29 year-old male and I never thought I would even get a kiss rather than a chance at a child in my lifetime. I guess if I don't get to spend a huge time in its life, it's better than not having a child at all, right?" she smiled lightly.

"That's a good sign. But a "better than" statement always demonstrates that you want more that what you originally stated. Spence you want to raise this child with Margret, don't you?" I nodded right away, knowing this was true. "Well go tell her when we get back! Where is she?"

"She went home." I sighed. "To Canada."

"Why is she there? Shouldn't you guys be working this out together?"

"She made it very clear that she doesn't need me. She has a job and a place to live and quite a bit of support from her family and friends since she has been living there all her life." JJ just rolled her eyes. "What?"

"Spence, no matter what she says, I know from personal experience that raising a baby is extremely hard, even with two parents. A single one... I couldn't even imagine. Consider going and finding her ASAP, even if it means leaving now and hooking up to video chat as soon as you possibly can." I knew she was right. I had to do it for the sake of this family to be not being torn to shreds.

"Thanks' JJ." I reached out and hugged her closely. "Sorry to disturb you. Go back to sleep."

"Not a problem. Good luck!" I waved back to her, and just as I was reaching the door, I heard my name again, and I turned around. "Congratulations." I gave her a genuine smile before leaving the room and heading to my next destination; Garcia's room.

I heard her mumble in anger to whoever was at the door as she came up to it on the other side and opened it, her anger turning to confusion at her sight of me standing at the doorstep. "Spencer?"

"Hi Garcia! Can you do me a quick favor?" she nodded. "Can you find me the address of Margret Giroux?"

**Hope you enjoyed! Please review/favourite/alert if you enojoy it, but I would love a review! **


	3. Chapter 3

**Authors note: Sorry it's been a slow update. Separated my shoulder yaddahyaddah :P Anyway just to you know, the POV's change quite frequently in this story between Margret and Spencer, so yah it's usually pretty obvious though :) Enjoy!**

Chapter 3

My mom always told me that in life, there would be many times that you would ask the question "why?", and no answer would ever come to you. I believe that this is one of those times. Why am I abandoning my team in the middle of a case? Why am I leaving the country on an airplane? Why am I chasing a girl who has no interest in me anymore? Why am I walking up the front stairs of her Canadian condo? Of course I have had more experiences with the question at hand. It's part of my job, and part of my personal life with my sick mother. All those seem so extreme compared to this; so why am I freaking out?

I rang her doorbell, and heard nothing inside. Was she hiding? I looked at my watch to see it was 1:30pm on a Tuesday, in May. She would clearly be at work. I dialed Garcia and got her to check her work address, quickly remembering that she was a school teacher. I got back into my car and drove off to the school.

I hid my gun in my shoe and signed in, stating my reason for being here, and my profession so if they saw a gun they wouldn't freak out to the point where the school would go on lockdown and I would be arrested. I showed them my badge and they let me go find her in room 117.

Glancing around the room, which was filled with posters, desks, and kids, I saw her . She was sitting at her desk, her long brown hair tied back tightly behind her head, and trailed in silky waves down her back. Her deep green eyes were focused on the work in front of her until she looked up and smiled at her class.

"Miss Giroux!" I heard a young voice of a little girl yell. "We have a visitor!" her eyes popped up to me, and her face turned to shock as she stood up.

"Spencer?" she asked, her voice barley a whisper, then looked nervously at her class. "Okay boys and girls, it's reading time!" she yelled over the class noises, and everyone started putting away their projects on Lion's. "I'll be right back." she took off her glasses and moved swiftly towards the door. "Spencer, what are you doing here?" for the first time in a long time, I couldn't actually place a mood to her voice. Although her voice seemed somewhat bitter with her quiet, snappy words; her eyes told a different story, one of relief.

"I had to see you." I told her. "I had to let you know that you aren't alone." she rolled her eyes.

"Of course I'm not alone!" she snapped. "I am surrounded by friends and family, people who truly love me. What's the real reason for you being here?" I glanced to my right and to my left again, before crashing my lips onto hers. She didn't kiss back for a few seconds, but I knew I had to be persistent in order to get some sort of reaction from someone with as thick a skull as she. Finally, she gave into the gesture.

"I know you're not alone. I know you have a life here in which you have always dreamed of. After so many years of being the number one person in your life, I deserve a statement." I was sure not to let her go, my large hands wrapped firmly on her arms, her eyes locked on mine. It reminded me of a child being told something that they weren't ready to hear, so the big innocent eyes prepare themselves for the worst "I am in FBI agent. My life is my team and I am a workaholic to say the least. I am awkward, and I don't have the slightest experience with young children, but here is what I am willing to give you: my everything. I am willing to cut down work hours and wake up with a screaming child. I am willing to change diapers and go on long walks. Who knows? Maybe I'll even coach something! I guess what I am trying to say is that this will be my only chance to be a father, and I am willing to try so hard for the two of you." Every spoken word was the truth, and I could not be prouder of my 6'1 awkward soul for being so brave.

She seemed dumbfounded. Her eyes kept on mine, as if searching for something. Finally, Molly snapped out of it, and reacted by leaning up and kissing me gently.

"I love you." After all that, _I love you _is all I get, not that I'm complaining, but it was short in comparison to my big spiel I had presented to her only moments ago. "I- I don't know what to say. I guess first off, I wasn't expecting you to care so much. Spencer, I'm not sure how, but I think we can make this work." I nodded, agreeing in a happy matter that she was willing to work everything out. "I will have to stay up here to help my grade six's to their testing, but I should be able to move out to Virginia early July.

"Deal!" It was more than I had expected, to be honest. Sure I would have to wait just over a month, but it didn't matter at this point. I have plenty of things to distract me until then.

"Speaking of grade six, may I ask of you a favor?" I nodded. "Can you come in about 15 minutes to a class I help teach? Students are doing a CSI and law and you seem to be quite involved in both." I must say, I was quite surrounded by both. Immediately, I tried to imagine myself dumbing myself down in order for these younger children to relate to me.

"Even if I haven't taken part in too many science based activities in my career, I have read up on them and have a great knowledge." I explained, and I her lips curled up in a small laugh.

"Of course you do!" she smiled, and reached down for my hand, squeezing it. "Thank you so much, Spencer. Please remember, though, that these are 6th graders, and not your team. Try to keep the random and extremely complicated facts to a minimum." I nodded.

"Of course." Without letting go of my hand, she pulled me into the quiet classroom, straight to the back as the young children read their books..

"You can sit here." She pulled out a soft, rolling chair from the front of her desk, and in the free time that presented itself, I logged on to my video chat. All I could do was type, letting them know that I couldn't say anything due to the silent atmosphere in the room, but I would just listen to what they had to say through the headphones, getting caught up

"Reid, where are you?" Morgan asked me.

"It's a long story." I typed, and rested my eyes on Molly, busy marking papers. Between listening to my team and watching Molly just live her life, I was distracted enough that the lunch bell startled me. "Anyway, I've got something to do for this next hour but I will be in touch tonight. Goodbye!" I closed the laptop and unplugged the headphones, slipping them both back in my bag before sitting up and watching Molly once again, this time, packing up all of her work.

"Everything alright?" Molly asked me from her marking.

"Of course." I assured her. Thinking back, there were always so many aspects that would make my best friend such a great mother, and one is that she has a knack for telling when something is off with a person, and actually caring enough to attempt help.

"Yay!" she lightly clapped her hands, each nail containing a manicured nail. "I should have asked, but do you have any old presentations that you could get, or put together about your job within the next half an hour?"

"Nope, but I know where to get one." Without explanation, I pulled out my phone and called Garcia.

Today was much more exciting than I assumed it would be when I dragged my feet out of bed early this morning. Seeing Spencer was just amazing of course, since his presence always seemed to be the brightness in my day, and he saying that he wants to try and be a father was truly touching.

To be honest, I think Spencer will be a great dad. He is a hard worker, I'll give him that, but I knew that at the end of the day he will put his family first.

Now, we sat alongside a few other teachers, and the principal who all seemed quite excited about Spencer's presentation to the kids. Turns out, since it is such a rare treat, the school arranged for the grade fours and fives join.

Spencer grabbed my hand discreetly, and we just watched the screen and Garcia set everything up within a minute. As soon as her face showed up on Spencer's phone, she wished him good luck, and I stood at the front of the very packed classroom. "Boys and girls, we have quite a treat for you this afternoon. As part of the grade 6 CSI unit, I have brought in an old friend of mine who happens to work with the FBI. Please give a warm welcome to FBI Behavioral Analysis Unit Supervisory Special Agent Doctor Spencer Reid." he stood up and waved, shook my hand and walked to the front.

"Hello everybody! Thank you for a great introductory Ms. Giroux and thanks for having me." he looked confident up there, just warm and welcoming, a typical Spencer trait. "Instead of my mile long title, you can just call me Dr. Reid. I've decided to conduct this presentation a little bit differently. The entire time I will let you ask the questions, and I will answer them. As the topics shift, the more questions will be asked, and in my experience that when working with younger students, it's better for me to know what is going through your mind then to just spill out information to you." everyone seemed generally pleased, and a girl named Abby was first to raise her hand. "Yes?"

"Where do you work?" she asked.

"Well I work and live in Virginia."

"What do you do?" Another little boy asked.

"Well as Ms. Giroux stated, I work with the FBI. We work with some of the worst criminal's in the world." their eyes went wide. "Unlike CSI, though, my team and I don't use too much science to catch them. Instead, we study their behaviour, try to get inside their mind and think a step before them. We make their random actions actually seem predictable." after learning about CSI, young children must find it hard to believe that there is any other way to catch a criminal than with cold hard science, but Spencer seemed to be handling himself well.

"So you're like a mind reader?" a girl named Shyla asked.

"More like action and reasoning to predict future events. Although mindreading is often advertised, there is no clear proof that someone is able to look into someone else's mind. Nor should they be allowed to! Having that sense of privacy is a gift."

"Can you tell my future?" Spencer nodded.

"Stand up." the young boy did what he was told. "What's your name?"

"Rodney."

"Okay Rodney. You're a kid of 11 I assume. Do to the firefighter backpack and book I can take it that it is a profession you may want to continue. Your clothing and your lunch show that you are a well-dressed and well fed child, supporting a healthy childhood and the fact that you're wearing your club soccer jersey shows that you are playing it. I'd say you have the potential to go far in life, so you really have to stay smart, especially all through high school." he smiled proudly and nodded, and I must say I was thoughly impressed.

"Dr. Reid, what is the scariest thing you have ever been through?" another boy asked. I saw Spencer swallow hard, and I knew that he was going to try to make this sound more gentle than 'I got kidnapped and was forced to dig my own grave and was addicted to drugs and beat up and was dead but got revived and it was horrible'. I knew he was going to do the right thing, though.

"Now being in the job puts you in some scary situations. I have more than once looked down the barrel of a gun and seen my life pass before my eyes. I have seen my own mother get put in a mental health hospital and have been kidnapped and forced to dig my own grave, but I must admit I recently found out that I am going to be a daddy, and that's pretty scary." I think I was more shocked than the kids hearing briefly about the hell Spence had been through. Spencer looked at me and smiled a large, genuine smile. I knew he was scared, heck, I was scared!

"You're going to be a daddy?" a little blonde girl asked. Spence nodded. "Who's the mommy?"

"Well she is a very pretty girl. I love her very much." he smiled.

"Oh Doctor?" I raised my hand and cut in. He smiled and nervously pointed to me, running his large hands through his shorter hair. "With all of this kidnapping and gunning down and excitement in your job, how would you expect to balance out family time?" he shrugged.

"I don't know yet. Clearly it is a learning experience between both partners and my... girl... is going to have to learn with me." Well played, Reid.

With that topic over, we went on about 50 more minutes with fascinating stories and daring tales about Criminals, and it seemed like too soon it was over. We released the children early to the park where we could supervise them, while Spence and I walked together pacing the length of the park. "You're good." I sighed.

"So are you." he smiled. "You know I mean what I said, right? I don't have a clue yet how to manage being a father and a profiler. JJ can do it, then I can too but it will take a huge amount of support from everyone."

"Speaking of support I can't believe I'm moving away from all mine." I sighed. He stopped me and looked down.

"You're moving?" I nodded.

"At the end of June. I know that means another month but you get the really fun part of the pregnancy and with all the case work you do it won't be too hard. I'm doing a resignation today."

"That's... awesome! I know how hard it may seem but I promise you that there is tons of support here too with the team and all." I nodded. "You'll love it."

**Drop a review! Let me know what you think! 3**

**m.E**


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